all good things come to an end.
i can't believe it but i'm actually missing pre u sem! it was a great experience all in all and i learnt so much!! Especially from my seminar group members and SLOs. I miss you all! Yes all 19 of you (20 including melissa). What a RANDOM bunch of people. A very good mix i should say haha. Anyway hope to meet up soon.
e314 multiplied today.
somehow i expected it la. i was definitely going somewhere else. i knew it. and it happened.
not much change actually. Jie kai was moved to sis yu ling's cell; me, weixian, alex, andrew, geraldine, huiqi and a few younger kids from sis yu ling's cell formed a new group with tiffany --- e413. Others stayed, e314 remains.
At first i felt nothing. Then everyone became teary eyed and ahhh!! just couldn't stand it. went round hugging everyone and wiping off those dreaded tears. Huizhen said its for the best, she says she needs weixian n i to communicate with the younger ones. She somehow thinks we have it. I hope she's not wrong i'll miss everyone lar.
But i guess God has His plans. (deep breath)
"He has made everything beautiful in its time" (Eccleciastes 3:11)
only time will tell.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Saturday, May 27, 2006
reality check.
"Lord of all creation,
of water earth and sky,
the Heavens are your tabernacle,
glory to the Lord on high
God of wonders beyond our galaxy,
you are holy, holy,
the universe declares our majesty,
you are holy, holy.
Lord of heaven and earth,
Lord of heaven and earth...
Early in the morning,
I will celebrate the light,
When i stumble in the darkness,
I will call your name by night,
God of wonders beyond our galaxy,
you are holy, holy,
the universe declares your Majesty,
you are holy, holy....
Lord of Heaven and earth,
Lord of heaven and earth.
Hallelujah, to the Lord of heaven and earth...
Precious Lord reveal your heart to me,
you are holy, holy,
the universe declares your majesty,
holy, holy, holy"
God of wonders - Third day
In this blogpost i will attempt with all my might to reflect HONESTLY on my walk with God since i got here.
Last year when i came to Singapore i was excited for one thing: I could start my life all over again in a place where few knew me. I decided to dedicate this new life to God, to doing His works.
Aaron (woon) told me that there is a church here called City Harvest which is apparently a VERY VERY good church. Too bad it's so far. THen, by God's divine grace i guess, i met jing jie and he brought me to CHC. First svc i admit - i was in awe. I have yet to see such passion, such energy packed in a relatively small church space 4 floors down in the basement. You'd think it started on ground level and them youth church goers were the ones who jumped and praised God and drove it 4 floors down into the ground. Haha. There was such fire. Huizhen, the cell group leader welcomed me and so did e314 (my cell group). And it was CHC all the way.
I was so pumped up i jumped at every opportunity to serve God. So excited with my new bible reading plan, it felt as though i was born again, again. It takes me 1 hour to get from my hostel to church, and another 1 to huizhen's house for cell group but it all felt worth it.
I wanted to join ODAC (Outdoor Activities Club) but i heard the commitment level required was really high so i opted for a milder version - the Boys' Brigade (and it's a christian uniform group all the better!). It didn't matter that BB was considered an external CCA.
Everything was just rosy (aside from the homesickness). I was still the new girl in class, and i felt really out of place in a school that was so boring it made me cry (literally). The only thing keeping me in Singapore is church (no understatement there).
I grew (spiritually) like never before. Let's just say CHC really imposes spiritual discipline (which is good). I grew in that half a year faster than i ever grew in my life. I was praying and reading the bible and being touched by God constantly.
Met this guy daniel at a BB leadership course. Barely knew him but he seemed friendly enough so i brought him to church!He brought a friend, samuel, too. I prayed for him, e314 did too. We wlcomed them, did the follow ups and was hoping for God them to be saved. For weeks they came to church when we asked them and it all seemed like it would work.
The promo exams were drawing near and being 5 months behind everyone else it was really against the odds that i would do well enough to stay here. I prayed and prayed even more. I was really close to my cell group mates. e314! encouragement letters here n there. It seemed so easy to pour out my emotions and thoughts on paper and share with others all the time. Nearly every week at cell group i raised my hand to share a testimony.
God is good he gave me all Bs for my promos, way better than what was required for me to stay here. And i took it as an assurance of what God has in store for me.
After promos I had an opportunity to help organise an evangelistic BBQ. Teamed up with wee yang jie kai and aaron. I really got close to them during this period of time. It was really fun too. (Remember shopping at NTUC with asupertight budget and having to carry a watermelon home haha, oh and the rubber duckys and funny hats at toys 'r us.) We fasted a lot during this time and prayed. (Oh yeah i've never experienced fasting before til i came here) I was also reading 'out of the saltshaker and into the world' in hopes of winning over daniel and sam once n for all. Ironic though. It seems i'm doing so so much for God but in essence i'm drifting away. I fasted a lot, but prayed little. hElped out in the BBQ but didn't seek God to be Lord over it. Dan and Sam came but it was the most awkward BBQ i've attended. It went okay, don't get me wrong. But God just wasn't there.
The year ended with a bang and i went for Temasek cAMP as well as went home. THings changed.
Throughout the year end holidays my bible was collecting dust. As i reached home, familiarity sank in and i just chameleoned into my surrounding. Back i was in my comfort zone. Went out with friends whom i'd missed and drifted away from God. DOn't get me wrong. My malaysian friends are the most fun bunch ever, i love them so much but they're just not sons or daughters of God. Yes i missed the worldly fun. Camp Temasek kinda added to that too. mY priorities shifted.
went for YC camp. it was okay. but nothing really changed.
things at home seemed the same as before it was just more comfortable to slip into the meiyan everyone knew a year ago. and it remained that way.
year 2006 started and i was back in church in Singapore again.
huizhen said we'd stop following up on Dan and Sam coz they simply weren't responding. We'd pray though.
People left church. New people came in. Relationships changed. School work crept back in. I faded out of church and cell group.
At that point God is only present in 10-15 minutes of my day each day. The bible sorta became obsolete and yep i was feeling dry. But there was new hope though. Ren xin was coming to church. For a while it felt as though she'd stay. Like God has really called her in for good.
Then one day she responded to altar call and apparently she was filled with tears of joy being touched by the Lord. That encouraged my faith and really charged me up again.
Next day though she confessed she's still not too sure. after all the emotional turmoil i asked huizhen what to do we told her its normal for a new christian to doubt. renxin said ok. but the doubt never stopped and she faded out of church.
though i never showed it, it broke my heart and spirit. The fire was put out. The flame is gone.
my quiet time with God wasn't even a daily thing anymore.
suddenly i've grown to be much closer to my classmates and hostelmates this yr. I joined lots of things in school, library, interhouse drama cheerleading etc. and there was BBAQ to train for. there just wasn't time.
huizhen called to tell me she wasn't happy that i was skipping service for kayaking course. i explained that it was compulsory and i didn't see what the big deal was. I haven't missed any service before and it was only once. I nodded and said i was sorry though. I was such a hypocrite. From then on i really felt what God meant when He said sacrifice.
Sacrifice was never meant to be easy. It seemed easy previously so I guess this was the point where God starts to mean business. I felt more and more restricted by church commitments and the christian group in school too. meanwhile i was feeling inferior coz of my underacheivement in almost everything at school as compared to others. I felt i needed to do more. i joined more and more stuff in school. true enough i was near the edge of burning out.
School became interesting in a worldly kinda way. I knew more n more ppl, got closer to my classmates, laughed more, gossiped more. I felt i needed to switch into a totally different personality when it came to the christian group in school and in church. i felt like a hypocrite. i was one actually. God was virtually out of my life by then.
Huizhen never stopped telling me i had to let go, let go, let go and do more for God. She knew i was burning out so she stopped me from giving bible study to Alex. I wasn't doing a good job anyway. I never really did what i taught her to do. Never really prepared for lessons also. Good thing i guess.
then after AQ n after cheerleading and everything it became peaceful again.
i started to reflect more. Aunty Linda asked me, along with a few others, to join the hostel Christian Fellowship planning committee. Another chance to be involved - in a CF sumore. I felt i needed to do something for God so i joined. Aunty Linda's discipleship style reminded me bout my old church back in Malaysia and reminded how CHC was lacking in bible discussion and it was just 'yes' 'i agree' without objections or any thought for that matter. Then i thought of leaving church. more people left. I was still hanging there though. Just went for service and bs and cg like normal but without any expectation in my heart. But God was slowly coming back into the picture. (You can't possibly lead a CF wihtout at least spending some times with God)
GODD!!! i cried.
one thing i realised. no hyped up praise n worship or spirit filled guest speaker or energetic session had any impact on my spiritual life anymore. it was really between me and God. Now if i don't pray i'm aware of it. problem was i slipped in and out. I was conscious of what was wrong but i did NOTHING!!
but i couldn't stand it no more. THese few weeks in the light of the mlutiplying of my cell group i was thinkkng again. God i need you. Badly. And i hope it stays that way. Hunger don't go. God come and satisfy but make me constantly more hungry than before. don't leave me my life's a void.
of water earth and sky,
the Heavens are your tabernacle,
glory to the Lord on high
God of wonders beyond our galaxy,
you are holy, holy,
the universe declares our majesty,
you are holy, holy.
Lord of heaven and earth,
Lord of heaven and earth...
Early in the morning,
I will celebrate the light,
When i stumble in the darkness,
I will call your name by night,
God of wonders beyond our galaxy,
you are holy, holy,
the universe declares your Majesty,
you are holy, holy....
Lord of Heaven and earth,
Lord of heaven and earth.
Hallelujah, to the Lord of heaven and earth...
Precious Lord reveal your heart to me,
you are holy, holy,
the universe declares your majesty,
holy, holy, holy"
God of wonders - Third day
In this blogpost i will attempt with all my might to reflect HONESTLY on my walk with God since i got here.
Last year when i came to Singapore i was excited for one thing: I could start my life all over again in a place where few knew me. I decided to dedicate this new life to God, to doing His works.
Aaron (woon) told me that there is a church here called City Harvest which is apparently a VERY VERY good church. Too bad it's so far. THen, by God's divine grace i guess, i met jing jie and he brought me to CHC. First svc i admit - i was in awe. I have yet to see such passion, such energy packed in a relatively small church space 4 floors down in the basement. You'd think it started on ground level and them youth church goers were the ones who jumped and praised God and drove it 4 floors down into the ground. Haha. There was such fire. Huizhen, the cell group leader welcomed me and so did e314 (my cell group). And it was CHC all the way.
I was so pumped up i jumped at every opportunity to serve God. So excited with my new bible reading plan, it felt as though i was born again, again. It takes me 1 hour to get from my hostel to church, and another 1 to huizhen's house for cell group but it all felt worth it.
I wanted to join ODAC (Outdoor Activities Club) but i heard the commitment level required was really high so i opted for a milder version - the Boys' Brigade (and it's a christian uniform group all the better!). It didn't matter that BB was considered an external CCA.
Everything was just rosy (aside from the homesickness). I was still the new girl in class, and i felt really out of place in a school that was so boring it made me cry (literally). The only thing keeping me in Singapore is church (no understatement there).
I grew (spiritually) like never before. Let's just say CHC really imposes spiritual discipline (which is good). I grew in that half a year faster than i ever grew in my life. I was praying and reading the bible and being touched by God constantly.
Met this guy daniel at a BB leadership course. Barely knew him but he seemed friendly enough so i brought him to church!He brought a friend, samuel, too. I prayed for him, e314 did too. We wlcomed them, did the follow ups and was hoping for God them to be saved. For weeks they came to church when we asked them and it all seemed like it would work.
The promo exams were drawing near and being 5 months behind everyone else it was really against the odds that i would do well enough to stay here. I prayed and prayed even more. I was really close to my cell group mates. e314! encouragement letters here n there. It seemed so easy to pour out my emotions and thoughts on paper and share with others all the time. Nearly every week at cell group i raised my hand to share a testimony.
God is good he gave me all Bs for my promos, way better than what was required for me to stay here. And i took it as an assurance of what God has in store for me.
After promos I had an opportunity to help organise an evangelistic BBQ. Teamed up with wee yang jie kai and aaron. I really got close to them during this period of time. It was really fun too. (Remember shopping at NTUC with asupertight budget and having to carry a watermelon home haha, oh and the rubber duckys and funny hats at toys 'r us.) We fasted a lot during this time and prayed. (Oh yeah i've never experienced fasting before til i came here) I was also reading 'out of the saltshaker and into the world' in hopes of winning over daniel and sam once n for all. Ironic though. It seems i'm doing so so much for God but in essence i'm drifting away. I fasted a lot, but prayed little. hElped out in the BBQ but didn't seek God to be Lord over it. Dan and Sam came but it was the most awkward BBQ i've attended. It went okay, don't get me wrong. But God just wasn't there.
The year ended with a bang and i went for Temasek cAMP as well as went home. THings changed.
Throughout the year end holidays my bible was collecting dust. As i reached home, familiarity sank in and i just chameleoned into my surrounding. Back i was in my comfort zone. Went out with friends whom i'd missed and drifted away from God. DOn't get me wrong. My malaysian friends are the most fun bunch ever, i love them so much but they're just not sons or daughters of God. Yes i missed the worldly fun. Camp Temasek kinda added to that too. mY priorities shifted.
went for YC camp. it was okay. but nothing really changed.
things at home seemed the same as before it was just more comfortable to slip into the meiyan everyone knew a year ago. and it remained that way.
year 2006 started and i was back in church in Singapore again.
huizhen said we'd stop following up on Dan and Sam coz they simply weren't responding. We'd pray though.
People left church. New people came in. Relationships changed. School work crept back in. I faded out of church and cell group.
At that point God is only present in 10-15 minutes of my day each day. The bible sorta became obsolete and yep i was feeling dry. But there was new hope though. Ren xin was coming to church. For a while it felt as though she'd stay. Like God has really called her in for good.
Then one day she responded to altar call and apparently she was filled with tears of joy being touched by the Lord. That encouraged my faith and really charged me up again.
Next day though she confessed she's still not too sure. after all the emotional turmoil i asked huizhen what to do we told her its normal for a new christian to doubt. renxin said ok. but the doubt never stopped and she faded out of church.
though i never showed it, it broke my heart and spirit. The fire was put out. The flame is gone.
my quiet time with God wasn't even a daily thing anymore.
suddenly i've grown to be much closer to my classmates and hostelmates this yr. I joined lots of things in school, library, interhouse drama cheerleading etc. and there was BBAQ to train for. there just wasn't time.
huizhen called to tell me she wasn't happy that i was skipping service for kayaking course. i explained that it was compulsory and i didn't see what the big deal was. I haven't missed any service before and it was only once. I nodded and said i was sorry though. I was such a hypocrite. From then on i really felt what God meant when He said sacrifice.
Sacrifice was never meant to be easy. It seemed easy previously so I guess this was the point where God starts to mean business. I felt more and more restricted by church commitments and the christian group in school too. meanwhile i was feeling inferior coz of my underacheivement in almost everything at school as compared to others. I felt i needed to do more. i joined more and more stuff in school. true enough i was near the edge of burning out.
School became interesting in a worldly kinda way. I knew more n more ppl, got closer to my classmates, laughed more, gossiped more. I felt i needed to switch into a totally different personality when it came to the christian group in school and in church. i felt like a hypocrite. i was one actually. God was virtually out of my life by then.
Huizhen never stopped telling me i had to let go, let go, let go and do more for God. She knew i was burning out so she stopped me from giving bible study to Alex. I wasn't doing a good job anyway. I never really did what i taught her to do. Never really prepared for lessons also. Good thing i guess.
then after AQ n after cheerleading and everything it became peaceful again.
i started to reflect more. Aunty Linda asked me, along with a few others, to join the hostel Christian Fellowship planning committee. Another chance to be involved - in a CF sumore. I felt i needed to do something for God so i joined. Aunty Linda's discipleship style reminded me bout my old church back in Malaysia and reminded how CHC was lacking in bible discussion and it was just 'yes' 'i agree' without objections or any thought for that matter. Then i thought of leaving church. more people left. I was still hanging there though. Just went for service and bs and cg like normal but without any expectation in my heart. But God was slowly coming back into the picture. (You can't possibly lead a CF wihtout at least spending some times with God)
GODD!!! i cried.
one thing i realised. no hyped up praise n worship or spirit filled guest speaker or energetic session had any impact on my spiritual life anymore. it was really between me and God. Now if i don't pray i'm aware of it. problem was i slipped in and out. I was conscious of what was wrong but i did NOTHING!!
but i couldn't stand it no more. THese few weeks in the light of the mlutiplying of my cell group i was thinkkng again. God i need you. Badly. And i hope it stays that way. Hunger don't go. God come and satisfy but make me constantly more hungry than before. don't leave me my life's a void.
Sunday, April 30, 2006
cont'd
As expected, i never found the time to finish off that blogpost about AQ and now my memory of it is already blurry.
Haha anyway, in a nutshell: -
It started with a run... and eventually we slowed down and there was this guy who fell into the canal, bleeding n all. We were quite left behind coz we didn't really run anymore after that, till we reached the bike pick up point. Haha it was our hope really and we raced to be one of the first few teams. I fell halfway though, haha. I was trying to turn around to find Bess. But i got up in less than a minute and there we were --- whoosh! We even overtook a certain group, after which we were motivated to speed on haha. We were thriving! And the next stop was rapelling. I represented the group in rapelling and wow. It wasn't a bad experience at all, descending a real cliff is definitely much different from descending a 3 storey building. But the wait was so SO SO long that we eventually fell behind again. And it was off to the ferry station and to the 2nd leg of the race at Pulau Ubin.
It was the hiking leg.
Took a few long routes coz of misjudgement and we thought we couldn't make it at the final checkpoint coz we were only left with 20 minutes to go back out to where we started. Bess hurt both ankles and we couldn't really go fast. But Ming Hwee carried her bag and she ran anyway, just for me (: By some miracle, we made it through the 2nd leg and it was off to the 3rd leg. We had some hopes. Till a certain team caught up with us.
At the ferry terminal Bess couldn't go on any further. We sat down. It really felt as if we were defeated. According to my teammates later on, at that very moment i had a look of utter disappointment on my face. Haha now i understand why they made extra effort to explain to me why we can't run anymore. Bess' ankles were quite badly injuredd. It didn't make much difference in the end coz when we reached the starting point of the 3rd and last leg we had only 45 minutes left. That included archery, rock climbing and the last station ---kayaking - the station in whih our captain Mr Chew was stationed at. (Later on he expressed how he was met with disappointement coz his girls never appeared :( ) Anyway, that's where we stopped.
We could've done better, but we fought well.
Haha anyway, in a nutshell: -
It started with a run... and eventually we slowed down and there was this guy who fell into the canal, bleeding n all. We were quite left behind coz we didn't really run anymore after that, till we reached the bike pick up point. Haha it was our hope really and we raced to be one of the first few teams. I fell halfway though, haha. I was trying to turn around to find Bess. But i got up in less than a minute and there we were --- whoosh! We even overtook a certain group, after which we were motivated to speed on haha. We were thriving! And the next stop was rapelling. I represented the group in rapelling and wow. It wasn't a bad experience at all, descending a real cliff is definitely much different from descending a 3 storey building. But the wait was so SO SO long that we eventually fell behind again. And it was off to the ferry station and to the 2nd leg of the race at Pulau Ubin.
It was the hiking leg.
Took a few long routes coz of misjudgement and we thought we couldn't make it at the final checkpoint coz we were only left with 20 minutes to go back out to where we started. Bess hurt both ankles and we couldn't really go fast. But Ming Hwee carried her bag and she ran anyway, just for me (: By some miracle, we made it through the 2nd leg and it was off to the 3rd leg. We had some hopes. Till a certain team caught up with us.
At the ferry terminal Bess couldn't go on any further. We sat down. It really felt as if we were defeated. According to my teammates later on, at that very moment i had a look of utter disappointment on my face. Haha now i understand why they made extra effort to explain to me why we can't run anymore. Bess' ankles were quite badly injuredd. It didn't make much difference in the end coz when we reached the starting point of the 3rd and last leg we had only 45 minutes left. That included archery, rock climbing and the last station ---kayaking - the station in whih our captain Mr Chew was stationed at. (Later on he expressed how he was met with disappointement coz his girls never appeared :( ) Anyway, that's where we stopped.
We could've done better, but we fought well.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
BB Adventure Quest 2006 - Team 914! ACJC Primers (:
It's here, finally, AQ is here!
All those weeks of training, running, biking, orienteering, pioneering, kayaking, rapelling, rockclimbing, bike repairing... it all sums up to this.
Ok admittedly training was quite haphazard haha. Many didn't come for training, and yeah i didn't have full attendance either, been slacking for the last 2 weeks to add to that.
But come to think of it, the trainings seem to bear more fond memories than the actual AQ itself. I got to know the 12th BR Boys, and yeah i now have a changed perception of them (for better or worse i will not say haha). And especially my teammates, I got to see sides of them that i've never seen before, this one, for the better, i will say. (: Not to mention our trainers and instructors n officers Sir Ron, Mr Chew, Clement, Mr Victor, Mr Siow, Mr Lai, Ms Sharon etc who we couldn't have done without. And how could i forget the other team, team 915! I'm proud of u gals! The only all-girl team! Ur determination n encouragement for me, just wows me.
I've come to love all these people more I must say (:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was the eve of AQ. 9:00pm at the BRMC conference room.
12th BR AQ Boys team, Relay team, n us 2 open teams were seated on the floor with our backpacks, hydropacks, bike helmets, energy food etc... the place was quite a mess. Hectic last minute arrangements (surely someone would forget something), n last minute pep talk by sir ron. The route has been revealed! It all boils down to tomorrow's performance. The boys listen intently, and yes us primers too, excitement really starts to come. Haha.
After the pep talk, time seemed to fly. In a frenzy to pack bags and repair leaky hydropacks, we kinda lost track of time. Bedtime was initially set at 9 but we went down to the carpark at 1030 to pick our bikes and try them. After replacing helen's bike tyre n pumping everyone else's it was already past 11! Mr Chew n Sir Ron took over and sent the bikes to the drop off point. (The lorry's engine died though haha and they had a long night after that) We quickly went to sleep on the cold, hard floor. Could hardly sleep. But i prayed n managed to slip in and out of sleep.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3am.
Sir Ron flung open our door and turned on the lights. Time to wake up. 5 minutes to wash up and it's warm up time. As usually, it stretched beyond 5 minutes and ron was evidently getting frustrated. We ran and stretched ourselves and had a power-packed breakfast haha. Bananas n cereals and bread n buns and this very peculiar drink that Mr Lai mixed up for us. (Waddaya know he's a PE teacher haha) - a mixture of red bull + 100plus + eno etc...
4am.
We board the bus. Excitement builds up as we sit in our teams.
Team 914 : Bess, Xin Hui, Ming Hwee and me
Team 915 : Helen, Kirsty, June n Geri (All girls n All foreigners team haha)
The boys sat in theirs too.
Ming Hwee, who's allergic to nuts, is not good with caffeine too i found out haha. He couldnt' close his eyes after he downed much of Mr Lai's strange energy drink. Oh n Bess took his Snickers Bars coz he couldn't take them nuts haha.
Ron goes on to give the boys one last pep talk. (We're not the stars of the day haha)
It was quite funny actually. Ron asked them all to close their eyes n visualise AQ.
"You run out of Temasek Poly, check the map and run, along the main road, following the crowd.... you see the bike station, you undo the chains, remember 012, and rush off... you approach the finishing line, you celebrate, you have tears of joy, you may not have won, but you've done your best..."
I must say, i've never heard the boys so quiet before.
"Ok let me ask you honestly", Sir Ron continues, "Who here thinks that they can make it, they can finish the race". Nearly everyone responded with a YES SIR!
He continued to ask "Who here thinks we'll be the champion".
Silence.
Haha. Yeah well it doesn't matter haha. Everyone knows that. 12th coy doesn't have a good track record of past AQ experiences. Just finish the darn race!
5am
We reach temasek Poly. Teams of AQ occupied the grandstand alr. The hype builds up again as everyone competes for the toilet and space to stretch.
6am
The map n checkpoint MGRs are given, everyone starts plotting and we compare ours with the boys'. You can't be too sure. Topo is everything in AQ haha.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And the Boys' Team starts first. They're the real stars of the whole AQ and yes 12th BR has a proud representative team. Brian n Dalbert n Darren n Ivan. Haha, they're supposedly the strongest. We send them our best wishes and off they go.
15 minutes later....
Open Team (that's us) and the Relay Team start off together. One of them boys put an empty 100 plus bottle on the track with the hope that someone will trip over and they can have a headstart. Haha. It is april fool's day afterall.
We spot our competitors: Xin hui had said that our definition of winning this time would be to bean John's team (ex-acjc primer) -- it's a long story haha. Anyway yep, we see them. And don't like them at all.
The announcer is utterly surprised to note that "thre are ladies joining us this year!"
and BANG. off we go. it starts here (to be continued)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All those weeks of training, running, biking, orienteering, pioneering, kayaking, rapelling, rockclimbing, bike repairing... it all sums up to this.
Ok admittedly training was quite haphazard haha. Many didn't come for training, and yeah i didn't have full attendance either, been slacking for the last 2 weeks to add to that.
But come to think of it, the trainings seem to bear more fond memories than the actual AQ itself. I got to know the 12th BR Boys, and yeah i now have a changed perception of them (for better or worse i will not say haha). And especially my teammates, I got to see sides of them that i've never seen before, this one, for the better, i will say. (: Not to mention our trainers and instructors n officers Sir Ron, Mr Chew, Clement, Mr Victor, Mr Siow, Mr Lai, Ms Sharon etc who we couldn't have done without. And how could i forget the other team, team 915! I'm proud of u gals! The only all-girl team! Ur determination n encouragement for me, just wows me.
I've come to love all these people more I must say (:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was the eve of AQ. 9:00pm at the BRMC conference room.
12th BR AQ Boys team, Relay team, n us 2 open teams were seated on the floor with our backpacks, hydropacks, bike helmets, energy food etc... the place was quite a mess. Hectic last minute arrangements (surely someone would forget something), n last minute pep talk by sir ron. The route has been revealed! It all boils down to tomorrow's performance. The boys listen intently, and yes us primers too, excitement really starts to come. Haha.
After the pep talk, time seemed to fly. In a frenzy to pack bags and repair leaky hydropacks, we kinda lost track of time. Bedtime was initially set at 9 but we went down to the carpark at 1030 to pick our bikes and try them. After replacing helen's bike tyre n pumping everyone else's it was already past 11! Mr Chew n Sir Ron took over and sent the bikes to the drop off point. (The lorry's engine died though haha and they had a long night after that) We quickly went to sleep on the cold, hard floor. Could hardly sleep. But i prayed n managed to slip in and out of sleep.
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3am.
Sir Ron flung open our door and turned on the lights. Time to wake up. 5 minutes to wash up and it's warm up time. As usually, it stretched beyond 5 minutes and ron was evidently getting frustrated. We ran and stretched ourselves and had a power-packed breakfast haha. Bananas n cereals and bread n buns and this very peculiar drink that Mr Lai mixed up for us. (Waddaya know he's a PE teacher haha) - a mixture of red bull + 100plus + eno etc...
4am.
We board the bus. Excitement builds up as we sit in our teams.
Team 914 : Bess, Xin Hui, Ming Hwee and me
Team 915 : Helen, Kirsty, June n Geri (All girls n All foreigners team haha)
The boys sat in theirs too.
Ming Hwee, who's allergic to nuts, is not good with caffeine too i found out haha. He couldnt' close his eyes after he downed much of Mr Lai's strange energy drink. Oh n Bess took his Snickers Bars coz he couldn't take them nuts haha.
Ron goes on to give the boys one last pep talk. (We're not the stars of the day haha)
It was quite funny actually. Ron asked them all to close their eyes n visualise AQ.
"You run out of Temasek Poly, check the map and run, along the main road, following the crowd.... you see the bike station, you undo the chains, remember 012, and rush off... you approach the finishing line, you celebrate, you have tears of joy, you may not have won, but you've done your best..."
I must say, i've never heard the boys so quiet before.
"Ok let me ask you honestly", Sir Ron continues, "Who here thinks that they can make it, they can finish the race". Nearly everyone responded with a YES SIR!
He continued to ask "Who here thinks we'll be the champion".
Silence.
Haha. Yeah well it doesn't matter haha. Everyone knows that. 12th coy doesn't have a good track record of past AQ experiences. Just finish the darn race!
5am
We reach temasek Poly. Teams of AQ occupied the grandstand alr. The hype builds up again as everyone competes for the toilet and space to stretch.
6am
The map n checkpoint MGRs are given, everyone starts plotting and we compare ours with the boys'. You can't be too sure. Topo is everything in AQ haha.
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And the Boys' Team starts first. They're the real stars of the whole AQ and yes 12th BR has a proud representative team. Brian n Dalbert n Darren n Ivan. Haha, they're supposedly the strongest. We send them our best wishes and off they go.
15 minutes later....
Open Team (that's us) and the Relay Team start off together. One of them boys put an empty 100 plus bottle on the track with the hope that someone will trip over and they can have a headstart. Haha. It is april fool's day afterall.
We spot our competitors: Xin hui had said that our definition of winning this time would be to bean John's team (ex-acjc primer) -- it's a long story haha. Anyway yep, we see them. And don't like them at all.
The announcer is utterly surprised to note that "thre are ladies joining us this year!"
and BANG. off we go. it starts here (to be continued)
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Friday, February 24, 2006
"outta da big sky into da big sky country!"
well. oh man. i dunno where to begin haha i've missed so so so much.
anyway, it's 11.53pm friday night now. i've just finished bathing and am super tired.
remember the thing about the horrible drama audition?
somehow, by God's divine grace I was shortlisted to participate in the competition. So there it was. Renxin, shimin, wanwei and me joined the competition, representing Cougar house. Haha. We met very very interesting characters along the way, Yang Han, this China dude with a funny accent, Ching Yee, this super cute J1 gal who acted as a retarded 10 yr old, n Weiling, another J1 girl who depicted a distraught mother.
Under the guidance of our house facilitator - miss drama queen Xin Jie - we went through a week of gruelling practice, rehearsals, emotional turmoil and man, the drama. Haha. We went through it all not exactly smoothly, but we made it nonetheless. :)
At 6pm today we were all in the holding area Nexus waiting anxiously for Renxin our lead to come back from her dance practice. We were told to get into character and stop talking to each other but of course that was hard to do. Esp with shimin around. We tried though, and we managed to, a few times. We were the last group to go up and one by one the other teams vacated the room. Darkness fell. Literally. Time was running out. We were to be backstage next and renxin was not back. Finally she came back in hurried manner, tears streaming down her face. Yes, her dance teacher's quite the horrible character. Renxin was told off for joining dance n stuff n ya.
Well we were all kinda at a lost at what to do. We just tried to console her n get her back into character. THe other groups had like more than an hour to get themselves into character but Renxin oh man. She had to stop crying, switch her focus and get into character in less than half n hour. But she did it! Of course we prayed for her too haha.
If ur wondering what our play is about...
it's called 'Little Airplanes of the Heart'. Renxin plays sam, a 10 yr old boy who wants to build a plane and fly to Montana. That was initially his Uncle John's dream, but Uncle John died trying. His spirit lives on, and Yang Han, yes that China dude, plays Uncle John. Wanwei plays Sam's mother, who tries over n over again to make Sam act like any normal boy and for him to give up that seemingly crazy dream. Jilly is played by Ching Yee. She is Sam's cousin, Uncle John's daughter. Yes she's a bit retarded and tries twice to get Sam to play with her by offering to lift up her skirt and show him her underpants. (She wore Yang Han's the Simpsons' boxers on that day). Weiling plays Cheryl, Jilly's mom and distraught widow of Uncle John's. Shimin and I were sorta what u call 'ca-le-fe' (side actresses) but we put in our ALL. haha. and i think it turned out well. Shimin was Principal Becker and I was a rabbi ( a jewish priest) conducting an unneccesarily dramatic funeral for Uncle John.
I can tell you that the worst part of acting is before getting on stage. It's the butterflies in the stomach. The nerves. The crazy rushing abouts. The distracted mind. FOCUS FOCUS!! Easy to say hard to do. For me lar at least. Haha. Wow. I prayed i really prayed hard. I was just really afraid that i would laugh on stage coz yeah my one and only scene is supposed to make everyone laugh like mad. Minutes before we were to go on stage everyone was just going nuts. Suddenly staring blankly into one spot. Then at another time rehearsing lines, seemingly talking to themselves. And with other ppl. AIYO it was mad lar. Haha.
In the end we went up, brave and strong. As Xin Jie said, we go up, explode on stage, and leave. I think that was precisely what we all we did. Haha... I dunno why but audiences seem to laugh at most unpredictable moments. I was listening to it all from backstage and finally it was my scene. God help me.
I stood up on the chair. Lights came on. Uncle John lay in front of me with his leg up in the air. I breathed in and pushed his leg down. Then the 2nd time. Audiences laughed. I breathed in. And i started, "Vee may not know veeree 'ee izz, but like Joooo-nah, in zee' belly of zee' whale, 'ee will not ezzcape zee zight of God....." yep. there was a funny accent haha. I really did it as dramatic as i could and MIRACULOUSLY i was not tempted to laugh at all. Haha. I saw some familiar faces in the audience btw! :D haha. Aiya i gave it my all lar.
Everyone did well except that Uncle John couldn't unzip his jacket at the end to give it to Sam. The zipper got stuck haha. Oh yeah did i mention that of all days Yang Han twisted his neck during sleep today, on the performance day haha. Anyway we were SOOO relieved it was over. It ended with a tremendous line, Sam saying, " I know, but it's not the same." I think that was the winning line haha.
Prize giving ceremony. ALL actors were on stage and we were at the very last row so no one could really see us. But we were screaming all throughout. Screaming so loud that we couldn't hear what they announced properly. But one thing we didn't get wrong, RENXIN won best actress!!!! Haha and she did that by acting as a 10 yr old boy. When it came to the best performance, we were so excited, we didn't hear it properly. Shimin started screaming so I thought we won too and so did wan wei and we started jumping like crazy til Renxin said "aiya puma won lar". Haha, cougar does rhyme with puma, and jaguar for that matter too. Walau. Haha. Apparently they were the most popular group, the one with the most audience votes and i guess that really contributed a lot. They were kinda the underdogs coz Panther was supposedly the best house. Haha :P
Ah well. We did our best. Ren Xin got best actress. Xin Jie bought us McDs. What more could we ask for? Haha. :)
We're still the best!!! :D Haha.
Thanks EVERYONE who came to watch. Esp my beloved roomie and renxin's roomie who rushed down from their CCAs just to watch our performance. In the middle of my lines the ushers had asked my roomie kwang ying to move downstairs but she said to them, "can I move later?" just so she could watch my one and only scene. AHHH!! i'M SO touched i could cry. Li Ming and Kuan Chin and Sue Wen came too! And thanks to my classmates who came to support renxin and shimin and wanwei too! Jia Le and Jian Wei n Swee Kiong and Jing Jie etc. And to yi jet and hui yan who voted for cougar though they were cheetahs'. :p Oh and thanks kok yi, sir ron n so many others who wished me good luck even though i had only one scene haha. I LOVE you guys.
Most importantly, Thank God. I overcame tremendous nerve problems and came a long way.
In some ways, drama is like real life...
Though I am a 'ca-le-fe' in a drama centred upon someone else's life, God knows it means a lot to me. He is all the way there, with me backstage, behind the curtains, present in the audience cheering His head off for me. What matters to me, however small it may be, matters to Him, a great deal. :) I couldn't have done it without Him.
This whole drama adventure was God trying to tell me precisely that, that He's always there for me. All my petty failures and aspirations and unrealistic ambitions, however small they may seem in the eyes of the world, matter greatly to Him.
Praise Him Jesus forevermore.
Goodnight :)
anyway, it's 11.53pm friday night now. i've just finished bathing and am super tired.
remember the thing about the horrible drama audition?
somehow, by God's divine grace I was shortlisted to participate in the competition. So there it was. Renxin, shimin, wanwei and me joined the competition, representing Cougar house. Haha. We met very very interesting characters along the way, Yang Han, this China dude with a funny accent, Ching Yee, this super cute J1 gal who acted as a retarded 10 yr old, n Weiling, another J1 girl who depicted a distraught mother.
Under the guidance of our house facilitator - miss drama queen Xin Jie - we went through a week of gruelling practice, rehearsals, emotional turmoil and man, the drama. Haha. We went through it all not exactly smoothly, but we made it nonetheless. :)
At 6pm today we were all in the holding area Nexus waiting anxiously for Renxin our lead to come back from her dance practice. We were told to get into character and stop talking to each other but of course that was hard to do. Esp with shimin around. We tried though, and we managed to, a few times. We were the last group to go up and one by one the other teams vacated the room. Darkness fell. Literally. Time was running out. We were to be backstage next and renxin was not back. Finally she came back in hurried manner, tears streaming down her face. Yes, her dance teacher's quite the horrible character. Renxin was told off for joining dance n stuff n ya.
Well we were all kinda at a lost at what to do. We just tried to console her n get her back into character. THe other groups had like more than an hour to get themselves into character but Renxin oh man. She had to stop crying, switch her focus and get into character in less than half n hour. But she did it! Of course we prayed for her too haha.
If ur wondering what our play is about...
it's called 'Little Airplanes of the Heart'. Renxin plays sam, a 10 yr old boy who wants to build a plane and fly to Montana. That was initially his Uncle John's dream, but Uncle John died trying. His spirit lives on, and Yang Han, yes that China dude, plays Uncle John. Wanwei plays Sam's mother, who tries over n over again to make Sam act like any normal boy and for him to give up that seemingly crazy dream. Jilly is played by Ching Yee. She is Sam's cousin, Uncle John's daughter. Yes she's a bit retarded and tries twice to get Sam to play with her by offering to lift up her skirt and show him her underpants. (She wore Yang Han's the Simpsons' boxers on that day). Weiling plays Cheryl, Jilly's mom and distraught widow of Uncle John's. Shimin and I were sorta what u call 'ca-le-fe' (side actresses) but we put in our ALL. haha. and i think it turned out well. Shimin was Principal Becker and I was a rabbi ( a jewish priest) conducting an unneccesarily dramatic funeral for Uncle John.
I can tell you that the worst part of acting is before getting on stage. It's the butterflies in the stomach. The nerves. The crazy rushing abouts. The distracted mind. FOCUS FOCUS!! Easy to say hard to do. For me lar at least. Haha. Wow. I prayed i really prayed hard. I was just really afraid that i would laugh on stage coz yeah my one and only scene is supposed to make everyone laugh like mad. Minutes before we were to go on stage everyone was just going nuts. Suddenly staring blankly into one spot. Then at another time rehearsing lines, seemingly talking to themselves. And with other ppl. AIYO it was mad lar. Haha.
In the end we went up, brave and strong. As Xin Jie said, we go up, explode on stage, and leave. I think that was precisely what we all we did. Haha... I dunno why but audiences seem to laugh at most unpredictable moments. I was listening to it all from backstage and finally it was my scene. God help me.
I stood up on the chair. Lights came on. Uncle John lay in front of me with his leg up in the air. I breathed in and pushed his leg down. Then the 2nd time. Audiences laughed. I breathed in. And i started, "Vee may not know veeree 'ee izz, but like Joooo-nah, in zee' belly of zee' whale, 'ee will not ezzcape zee zight of God....." yep. there was a funny accent haha. I really did it as dramatic as i could and MIRACULOUSLY i was not tempted to laugh at all. Haha. I saw some familiar faces in the audience btw! :D haha. Aiya i gave it my all lar.
Everyone did well except that Uncle John couldn't unzip his jacket at the end to give it to Sam. The zipper got stuck haha. Oh yeah did i mention that of all days Yang Han twisted his neck during sleep today, on the performance day haha. Anyway we were SOOO relieved it was over. It ended with a tremendous line, Sam saying, " I know, but it's not the same." I think that was the winning line haha.
Prize giving ceremony. ALL actors were on stage and we were at the very last row so no one could really see us. But we were screaming all throughout. Screaming so loud that we couldn't hear what they announced properly. But one thing we didn't get wrong, RENXIN won best actress!!!! Haha and she did that by acting as a 10 yr old boy. When it came to the best performance, we were so excited, we didn't hear it properly. Shimin started screaming so I thought we won too and so did wan wei and we started jumping like crazy til Renxin said "aiya puma won lar". Haha, cougar does rhyme with puma, and jaguar for that matter too. Walau. Haha. Apparently they were the most popular group, the one with the most audience votes and i guess that really contributed a lot. They were kinda the underdogs coz Panther was supposedly the best house. Haha :P
Ah well. We did our best. Ren Xin got best actress. Xin Jie bought us McDs. What more could we ask for? Haha. :)
We're still the best!!! :D Haha.
Thanks EVERYONE who came to watch. Esp my beloved roomie and renxin's roomie who rushed down from their CCAs just to watch our performance. In the middle of my lines the ushers had asked my roomie kwang ying to move downstairs but she said to them, "can I move later?" just so she could watch my one and only scene. AHHH!! i'M SO touched i could cry. Li Ming and Kuan Chin and Sue Wen came too! And thanks to my classmates who came to support renxin and shimin and wanwei too! Jia Le and Jian Wei n Swee Kiong and Jing Jie etc. And to yi jet and hui yan who voted for cougar though they were cheetahs'. :p Oh and thanks kok yi, sir ron n so many others who wished me good luck even though i had only one scene haha. I LOVE you guys.
Most importantly, Thank God. I overcame tremendous nerve problems and came a long way.
In some ways, drama is like real life...
Though I am a 'ca-le-fe' in a drama centred upon someone else's life, God knows it means a lot to me. He is all the way there, with me backstage, behind the curtains, present in the audience cheering His head off for me. What matters to me, however small it may be, matters to Him, a great deal. :) I couldn't have done it without Him.
This whole drama adventure was God trying to tell me precisely that, that He's always there for me. All my petty failures and aspirations and unrealistic ambitions, however small they may seem in the eyes of the world, matter greatly to Him.
Praise Him Jesus forevermore.
Goodnight :)
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